Food safety cake making

Cake Making The Food Safety Team at the Council have put together the following tips to help you ensure that the cakes you bake and decorate not only look and taste great but are safe to eat too!    

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Always wash your hands before you begin and after handling high risk foods such as eggs to reduce the risk of cross contamination.

It’s a good idea to wear an apron when working with food products-this will act as a barrier to protect contamination of food from clothing.

Ensure worksurfaces are thoroughly cleaned to prevent dirt and harmful bacteria from spreading onto the cake or icing.

Equipment that comes into contact with food must be capable of being thoroughly cleaned and food grade. Pay attention to specialist equipment, paint brushes, air brushes, pins, skewers or piping bags.

Pets should be kept out of the kitchen; where pets can gain access to food preparation areas, adequately wash and disinfect work surfaces and cooking utensils before any food handling or preparation takes place.

Edible glitters, dusts, inks and paints Only glitter or dust clearly labelled as ‘edible’ should be applied to food for consumption. Some non-edible cake decorating materials, described as dusts or glitters, are being marketed in ways that could be misleading. Products only labelled as ‘non-toxic’, does not necessarily mean ‘edible’.

See the Food Standards Agency guidance for the use of glitters and dusts with food.

Isopropyl alcohol (IPA) is sometimes used as a carrier in colouring pens for food decoration. IPA is not a permitted additive under EU food additives legislation and colouring pens or paints containing that additive should not be used for decorating foods.

Enjoy making cakes? Interested in setting up a cake making business?

If you are planning to go into business making and selling cakes, follow these guidelines to ensure you are getting it right first time Register the premises where the cakes will be made with Solihull MBC Environmental Health. If the operation is to take place at home then this will be your home address. Simply complete and return a food registration form. Registration is a legal requirement, but there is no fee for this process. Your details will be added to our inspection list and an officer may contact you in the future to visit your business.

Keep a documented food safety management system. Packs which are suitable home baking are available free of charge from the Food Safety Team. These should be completed and kept at your business.

You should have undertaken food hygiene training. For a low risk business such as cake making a Food Hygiene Awareness/Refresher course would suffice. This is a half-day course which can be provided by Solihull MBC. The food preparation area must be suitable for this purpose. For example:     

Floors/walls/ceilings must be clean and in a good state of repair Items which come into contact with food must be capable of being cleaned and disinfected You must have access to a sink that is designated for hand washing only. A sink with a one and a half bowls would suffice You should have separate storage areas for items associated with the business You must have a means of ensuring that foreign bodies do not fall into the food, for example by minimising items that are in the food products areas, not wearing jewellery etc

You will need to consider who you are going to sell the products to as this will have some bearing on the information that will need to be provided on the cakes. For instance, are you going to sell directly to the final customer or through a retail outlet e.g. a farm shop, deli etc.? Food needs to be labelled accordingly. You may also need to consider the shelf life and storage conditions for the products.

Need further info?

Contact the Food Safety Team on 0121 704 8081 or pprotection@solihull.gov.uk